It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Note to Our Readers:We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story.

FEATURED STORYCuba’s Mangroves Dying of Thirst
CUBA - In the 1960s, the Cuban government declared that storage of fresh water for times of drought or hurricanes was a matter of national security, and it began to dam up the country’s rivers. But that policy has claimed an unforeseen victim: mangroves. The sea swallowed up the old road connecting Batabanó and Mayabeque beaches, in southwest Cuba. In the last 50 years, more than 100 metres of coastline have been lost in that area to the south of Havana. The weakened mangroves, which now receive hardly any fresh water, were unable to prevent it from happening. “The mangroves deteriorated so much that in 2008, Hurricane Ike pushed the sea a metre and a half inland, and it never went back out. Since then, it has continued to advance inland,” Flora Yau, who lives in Surgidero de Batabanó, told IPS. People in this town in the municipality of Batabanó in the province of Mayabeque, some 70 km south of Havana, are tired of the flooding that now happens every time strong winds blow from the south. The worst thing is the loss of land to erosion. In some places, nearly two metres a year of coastline have been lost, and some areas are completely submerged now, like Bujamey Point. The mangroves have been weakened, first and foremost, by the fact that they are not getting as much fresh water as they used to, because of the dams built inland, biologist Leda Menéndez said. “The dams cut the natural circulation of the water.” Mangroves, which make up 20 percent of the forests in this Caribbean island nation and cover 4.8 percent of the territory, need a constant flow of a mixture of fresh and saltwater, the researcher explained. READ MORE

ASIA

Dugong under threat in Gulf of Mannar
INDIA - Dugong, the sea-grass eating marine mammal found in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay, is under threat from increased human activity. The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park proposes to undertake a study to assess the population of these sea creatures, according to Deepak S.Bilgi, Wild Life Warden. The study, to be conducted by Tuticorin based Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute, would be completed during this financial year, after which an action plan and measures for Dugong conservation would be launched, he told The Hindu. As Dugongs feed on sea grass, the sea grass beds in the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar region will also be assessed. The study will be conducted through the Tamil Nadu Bio-Diversity conservation and Greening Project (TBGP), and is aimed at determining the distribution, population and migratory pattern of Dugong. “We will launch the study shortly and complete it by the end of this financial year,” Mr Bilgi said, adding a study conducted in 2007 had revealed that the region had over 150 Dugong. “The Dugong population is the highest in the Gulf of Mannar region compared to other parts of the country,” he said. READ MORE

Mighty mangroves shield Indian village from cyclone’s wrath
INDIA – Sometimes the best way of being protected from nature is by protecting nature itself — and a small coastal village in India is proof of it. As Cyclone Phailin rose from the Bay of Bengal over the weekend, bringing gales and floods to India that killed 27, residents of Praharajpur did the sensible thing and got the hell out of dodge. As the villagers returned home, they discovered that a restored mangrove plantation helped shelter their vulnerable village from the storm’s wrath. About 40 of the village’s 200 homes were damaged, but residents told Down to Earth that it would have been worse without the mangrove. “In the nearby Sundrikhal and Pentha village, most of the houses have been washed away,” villager Ravindra Behera told the Indian environmental magazine. “We are better off because the forest has taken the initial brunt of the storm.” “Our elders had made an embankment along the coast to prevent soil erosion in 1975. They randomly planted mangrove trees on the embankment. Gradually, this plantation converted into a mangrove forest. However, it was during the 1982 cyclone that we realized that mangrove can also prevent the storm from reaching us,” said Balram Biswal, another resident. Thereafter, the villagers aggressively started planting mangroves on the island and also made provisions in the village to protect the forests. “We constituted a 15-member forest protection committee from among the villagers. The body penalised anyone who damaged the forests in any possible way and a night guard was appointed and paid Rs 100 per night to protect the mangrove,” said Behera. READ MORE

Clean and green, Karnataka's mangroves drawing tourists by the dozen
INDIA – Ever since the Karnataka forest department started growing mangroves (kandla) along the coastal delta areas as Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra have done, a new breed of tourists have begun visiting the coastal areas in the state. Mangrove tourists, as they are known, are enthusiasts who like to hang around as close to the mangrove forests or even take boat rides into them just to see the bustling marine and avian life inside. The spots most popular are Karwar and Ullal. Mangrove forests in the estuaries of coastal Karnataka, particularly in Karwar and Ullal, have started coming up in a big way after the forest department started growing them in 2008 under the ‘green wall’ project. According to forest department statistics, more than 800 hectares in the estuarine area has been brought under mangrove plantations that are now full-fledged forests, that can be developed into eco-tourist spots. Dr Keshavnath, who has conducted path-breaking research in zooplankton and phytoplankton, recommends planting of mangroves in more areas. READ MORE

Mangroves - Reserved forest status likely
INDIA - The state forest department is likely to change the reservation of mangroves from ‘Protected Forest’ to ‘Reserved Forest’. The new status will cover around 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane and will enable the state to take stringent action against offenders. The Indian Forest Act provides for two kinds of forests – Protected and Reserved. The former offers people the right to reside, do business, cut woods, etc. These activities are not allowed under the latter category. Speaking to dna, N Vasudevan, chief conservator of forest, mangrove cell, said, “We have already notified the mangroves in Mumbai region. We will notify the Thane and Raigad areas later. ” The process for changing the classification from ‘Protected’ to ‘reserved’ started in August this year. In fact, the the Bombay HC, in October 2005, had accorded the status of ‘protected forests’ to mangroves on government land, whereas those on private land were classified ‘forests’. Despite the protection provided by the high court, destruction of mangroves continued unabated in the last eight years. Mumbai and its surrounding areas account for almost half the mangrove cover in the state. “In Maharashtra, there are 25,000 to 30,000 hectares of land under the mangrove cover,” said Vasudevan. READ MORE

Lessons learnt on managing mangroves sustainably
INDONESIA - Indonesia`s mangrove swamp is the largest in the world, covering some 3.2 million hectares, or 22 percent of the total area of mangroves in the world, with a high level of biodiversity. Despite their many benefits, these coastal trees are in a vulnerable state. Over the last 20 years, the area has been reduced by 1.1 million hectares, mostly due to conversion to other land uses. In the 1980s alone, mangroves covered 4.2 million hectares of land in Indonesia, but by the end of the 1990s, more than half of that coverage had been lost to agricultural expansion. Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,504 islands with a total coastline of 95,181 kilometers, is extremely vulnerable to a rise in sea levels, storm surges, or intense tropical storms linked to global warming. Most of its population lives along the coast and in the downstream areas of watersheds, which empty into the main ocean. In his speech to mark the opening of the seminar on 25 years of Mangrove Forest Management, held by PT Bintuni Utama Murni Wood Industries (BUMWI) in Bogor recently, Dr Harry Santoso, senior expert for the Ministry of Forestry for the Development of Watershed Management, remarked that the economic potential of coastal areas is generally quite high. READ MORE

Kyauktan shrimp farmers consider quitting
MYANMAR - It's hard to see where it has gone all gone wrong: 7000 acres of prime aquaculture farmland only 30 miles or (48 kilometres), from the country’s biggest city and market, Yangon, but nearly half of the zone’s farmers are giving up. The zone, at Mayan Zwebar village in Kyauktan township in Yangon Region, includes nearly 50 farmers, but 22 say they must soon stop working because they are not making money. The Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF) says it will do what it can to provide technology and attract foreign investment, said the body’s vice president, U Kyee Ngwe. “This is a good place for farming because we can farm prawn and marine fish species such as long-finned eel [ngalin ban], giant seabass (ka ka tit) and crab,” he said. “All of those species can fetch good prices locally and internationally. But to do so we need good infrastructure and some capital.”

Post-Phailin floods cause shrimp farmers' huge loss
INDIA – After the devastation caused by the cyclone Phailin, the state of Odisha is now having to fight heavy floods which have caused serious financial loss to the local shrimp industry. As a consequence of this natural disaster, shrimp farmers have estimated a loss amounting to INR 3.5 billion (USD 57.1 million), the Business Standard reported. "The overall loss in farming due to inundation of farm lands is in the range of 300-350 crore rupees," vice president, Odisha Shrimp Farmers' Association, Manoranjan Panda stated. A heavy cyclone-induced downpour which caused rivers Budhabalunga, Subarnarekha, Baitarani, Rushikulya and Bansadhara to overflow, has seriously affected the regions of Keonjhar, Balasore, Ganjam, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur and Nayagarh, threatening the lives of millions of locals in south-central and northern Odisha. Panda pointed out that farm lands near Subarnarekha, Budhabalanga and Jalaka rivers were the most seriously devastated. Revenue & Disaster Management Minister, S. N. Patro, pointed out, following a special review meeting, that: "Though the cyclone has stepped out of the state, four blocks in Balasore are in the grip of a massive flood. Teams of National Disaster Response Force, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and Army personnel have been deployed to the affected areas to carry out relief and rescue work." READ MORE

AFRICA

IGAD’s workshop on “Illegal Unregulated and Unreported Fisheries”
SOMALIA - A recent Illegal Unregulated and Unreported [IUU] Fisheries workshop held in Djibouti by the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development [IGAD] for East Africa and facilitated by the Fish I Africa Organisation and the African Maritime Safety and Security Agency finalised in an unanimous decision from the high level delegates to formalise the development of a task force focused on the advancement of sustainable fisheries for the Horn of Africa sub regions; the delegates were representative of the Somalia Federal Government, Somaliland, Puntland and Djibouti. The workshop, which focused on International Law, (led by Shannon Cosentino-Roush), IUU Fisheries (led by Pierre Malan) and Maritime Safety and Security (led by Karen Sumser-Lupson) provided the selected delegates with a background of factual material which they considered during focused breakout sessions. READ MORE

AMERICAS

New Science: Mangrove Forests as Incredible Carbon Stores
USA - Mark Spalding is a senior marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy. My colleagues and I have just published a study in Conservation Letters in which we work out how much carbon there is in the world’s mangrove forests, give or take a bit. And we mapped it. And here’s why these findings are tremendously important: They quantify what some of us in marine conservation have been saying for a decade or more: That mangrove forests are among the most carbon-rich habitats on the planet. That, although they occupy just a fraction of the world’s surface, they pack a punch. Anyone concerned about preserving nature’s value — carbon sequestration and all the other benefits mangroves provide us — needs to think hard about this. READ MORE

Mapping Mangroves for Our Carbon Future
USA - A new study of 35 countries maps out the amount of carbon stored by mangrove ecosystems in various parts of the world in hopes of learning from the mangrove’s elusive carbon-storing system courtesy of Mother Nature. Mapping these mangrove hotspots is critical to our energy future, scientists say, because understanding how they store carbon could The new model used by the researchers enabled them to map the variations among the world’s mangrove forests and pinpoint those areas with the most carbon. All mangroves are important for storing carbon, but some that ranked particularly high in the study include forests in Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea, on the Pacific coast of Colombia, and in Northern Ecuador. READ MORE

EUROPE

BBC explains the important role mangroves play
UK – If mangroves and their tropical coastal ecosystems are new to you, watch this short educational vieo presented by the BBC. Mangrove forests grow on tropical coasts with soft soils and are flooded twice daily by the tide. They are important nursery areas for many species of fish. Mangroves and coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship – the reef protects the coast where the mangroves grow from being eroded by the sea, and the forest traps sediment washed from the land that would otherwise smother the reef. VIEW VIDEO

LAST WORD

What? No Last word? Write to us with your comments!

~ WE WELOCME YOUR LETTERS - If you’d like to have the last word on this or any other mangrove related topic, please send us your submission for upcoming newsletters. We’ll choose one per issue to have “the last word”. While we can’t promise to publish everyone’s letter, we do encourage anyone to post comments on our Blog at www. mangroveactionproject.blogspot.com

Please cut and paste these news alerts/ action alerts on to your own lists and contacts. Help us spread the word and further generate letters of concern, as this can make a big difference in helping to halt a wrongdoing or encourage correct action.

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Note to Our Readers:We strive to keep active links in our newsletter. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, occasionally links to stories may become broken. If you find a link to a story is not functioning, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story.

Sundarbans Declaration
BANGLADESH - Today, in the afternoon of 28 September 2013, we have reached the greater Sundarbans Digraj area after traveling 5 days and 400 kilometers on the road since 24th September morning through Dhaka, Savar, Rana Plaza, Jahangirnagar University, Manikgonj, Goalondo,Rajbari, Faridpur, Magura, Jheneidah, Kaligonj, Jessore, Noapara, Fultola, Doulotpur, Khulna, Bagerhat, Rampal, Chulkathi. Hundreds of thousands of people have expressed solidarity with us to protect the Sunderbans and for implementation of our seven points demand over the course of the Long March and earlier. People from all walks of life have participated in the Long March – left wing progressive political parties, farmers, workers, men, women, students, youth, children, adoloscents, science organisations, cultural musical and theatre groups, film making organisations, reading circles, magazines, teachers, scientists, engineers, artists, writers, journalists, film makers, development professionals, human rights activists and other professionals. The Long March was organized in a protest to have the proposed Sundarbans destructionary Rampal coal based power plant cancelled, and for implementation of the National Committee’s seven points demand. While the the government has been busy engaging in a power hungry rent seeking behavior to destroy the Sundarbans in the name of ‘power generation’ and ‘development’, the people have been active building a fortress of resistance with a mass movement to establish their rights. READ MORESign the Petition to End this Project

ASIA

How Not to Love Nature: Shove a Coal Plant Next to Earth’s Biggest Mangrove Forest
BANGLADESH - Man-eating tigers have long provided the best defense for Bangladesh’s Sundarbans National Park, the planet’s largest mangrove forest and a UNESCO World Heritage site. These days, however, environmentalists are alarmed by a more insidious threat to the park’s future: a massive 1,320-MW coal-fired power plant that’s due to be constructed just 14 km away, in the city of Rampal. The government insists that the project, a joint venture with India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corp., is needed to bring affordable electricity to one of the poorest corners of Bangladesh amid rising demand and energy costs. But opponents counter that operating a coal plant so close to an ecologically critical area will devastate waterways and vegetation that support a range of extraordinary wildlife, from river dolphins to the iconic royal Bengal tiger. In a low-lying and already flood-prone country, there are additional fears that without the natural buffer the mangrove offers, people will be even more vulnerable to severe weather. “No sane person in the world would agree to this project,” says Kallol Mustafa, an engineer and member of a newly formed protection committee. READ MORESign the Petition to End this Project

Thousands in Bangladesh march for 5 days to stop proposed coal-fired power plant
BANGLADESH – Last week, thousands of Bangladeshis completed a nearly 250-mile, 5-day march from the capital city, Dhaka, to Rampal, in the Sundarbans area of southwest Bangladesh and home to the world’s largest mangrove forest. The participants - men and women, students and professionals - joined this massive undertaking with one unifying goal: to stop the 1,320-megawatt Rampal coal-fired power plant backed by the Indian state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Bangladesh state-owned Power Development Board (PDB)Home to rich biodiversity, including the planet’s largest mangrove forest, the endangered royal Bengal tigers, and nearly extinct Irrawaddy dolphins, the Sundarbans was a finalist for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and remains a UNESCO World Heritage site. But it is also so much more. The marchers know that toxic pollution from the plant will not only endanger this rich biodiversity, but also people who breathe the same air and drink the same water. READ MORESign the Petition to End this Project

Borneo: Emergency Call for National Park
INDONESIA – Indonesian environmentalists are sounding alarm. Palm oil company BGA is clearing Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo to establish new plantations. The tropical swamp forests are among the last remaining places of refuge for the endangered orang-utans and proboscis monkeys. Please sign the petition to the Indonesian government
The palm oil company Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (BGA) is logging large areas of rainforest in the Tanjung Puting National Park and the adjacent buffer zone in order to convert it into palm oil monocultures. Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo covers an area of 400,000 hectares and is home to unique tropical forest ecosystems. The coastline and the estuaries are covered by dense mangrove forests. Swamp and peat forests still dominate the landscape. The forests are the habitat of the highly endangered proboscis monkeys. The tree-dwelling animals can only be found in Borneo and always live close to the water. Additionally, 6,000 orangutans as well as about 250 bird species and over 600 tree species can be found in the protected area. READ MORE

Mangrove to be planted in North Sumatra, Aceh
INDONESIA - North Sumatra and Aceh provinces have been chosen by foreign sponsors as the locations for a mangrove-planting program for carbon sequestration in Indonesia. The sequestration program is fully sponsored by eight foreign companies from France and Germany. The foreign corporations, Danone Group, Schneider Electric, Credit Agricole Bank, Hermes International, Voyageurs du Mondo, La Poste Group and CDC Climat Bank from France and SAP Germany, have agreed to appoint non-governmental group Yagasu to implement the carbon-sequestration program. Yagasu executive director Bambang Suprayogi said the program was the first of its kind in Indonesia, only the third country in the world after Senegal and India to carry out such a program. “We must maintain this trust and responsibility and answer it with proof that Indonesia has the capability to run the program,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Monitoring Livelihoods Project workshop at Grand Aston Hotel in Medan. READ MORE

Traditional Fisher People threatened by Deep Sea Port
BANGLADESH - The fish workers of Sagar Island, around 10,000 in number, are mortally threatened by the upcoming Deep Sea Port. The Deep Sea Port will destroy the most fertile marine fisheries of the region and will evict the fishing communities from their coastal dwellings. The fisher people of Sagar Island have resolved to resist. On Saturday, 28 September 2013, 31 fishing community representatives from all over the island sat together to decide the future course of action in the face of the imminent danger. The meeting was attended by Pradip Chatterjee, NFF Secretary and President of DMF and Milan Das, treasurer DMF. The veteran leaders of fishing communities of Sagar recollected the fond memory of NFF Chairperson Harekrishna Debnath, who pioneered in convening a meeting of fisher people in Sagar Island to form an organisation. The Deep Sea Port will affect the water quality, disrupt coastal hydrology, cause bottom contamination and destroy marine and coastal ecology. All these will have severe decimating impact on the fish resources of this one of the richest fishing areas of the region. The Deep Sea Port at Sagar falls within the Sundarban biosphere reserve, a world heritage site, harboring the planet’s largest mangrove forest and the largest nursery of fish in the region. READ MORE

Estuarine mangrove forest under reclamation threat
INDIA - The estuarine Vincent Island on Ashtamudi Lake at Shakthikulangara in Kollam is a private property covered by over 15 hectares of rich mangrove forests. The island is the only place in India where the rare yellow mangrove (Ceriops tagal) is found. But, the ecologically vital mangrove forests there stand threatened by development activity. The threat to the mangroves on the island, which stands isolated, was noticed when a team from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies went there last week to collect saplings and seeds of the yellow mangrove for studies and propagation. It was found that a wall had been erected around a good portion of the island as part of a move for reclamation. This has affected tidal activity on the island, and that poses a threat to the survival of the mangroves there. However, any mangrove cover over 25 percent of land gets covered by the provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Notification 2011 and cannot be destroyed. The yellow mangrove, long thought to be extinct, was discovered on Vincent Island by mangrove enthusiasts in 2011. Experts also found another species of mangrove on the island recently. The yet-to-be-identified species has the combined characteristics of the critically endangered Brugulera sexangula and Brugulera gymnorrhiza species, experts say. This species was also noticed by the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies team during its visit. READ MORE

Forest fragmentation triggers 'ecological Armageddon'
SINGAPORE – Species affected by rainforest fragmentation are likely to be wiped out more quickly than previously thought, scientists have warned. A study found that some small mammal species on forest islands, created by a hydroelectric reservoir, in Thailand became extinct in just five years. It also showed that populations in the fragmented habitats were also at risk from another threat - invasive species. The findings have been published in the journal Science. Results showed that almost all small mammals disappeared from patches of fragmented forest smaller than 10 hectares (25 acres) within just five years, and larger plots - measuring up to 56ha - recorded the loss of small animals within 25 years. Co-author Luke Gibson from the National University of Singapore said the team was very surprised by the findings, describing it "like an ecological Armageddon". READ MORE

All human activity banned in Mumbai's mangrove zones
INDIA - Mumbai's mangroves have recently been declared as reserved forests. The government will now appoint a forest settlement officer to settle claims of all inhabitants on mangrove land. What this means is that all human activity is now strictly prohibited in the mangrove areas. "Once the settlement is done, no activity will be allowed in these areas. This will help in better protection of the mangroves,'' said an official. Earlier, these mangroves were classified as protected forests which allowed human activity. READ MORE

AFRICA

Development project endangers mangrove forest
SAUDI ARABIA - Fahd Al-Jubair, Eastern Province mayor, recently approved a land reclamation project for the Al-Jamieen plots, which may lead to the destruction of an ecologically vital mangrove forest in the Tarout Island. The island lies under the jurisdiction of Qatif Municipality. The Green Gulf Society has appealed to Khaled Al-Sufyan, governor of Qatif, to stop the project, which endangers the mangrove forest of 2 million square meters.
“Notwithstanding repeated complaints, we have noticed land filling activities along the beaches parallel to the remaining mangrove forest in Tarout over the past weeks. The warning boards posted in those locations banning such work have also been discarded,” a local daily reported quoting a statement of the society. READ MORE

EUROPE

Value of mangroves compared to converting them to shrimp farms
BELGIUM - The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is an international initiative to draw attention to the benefits of biodiversity. It focuses on the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and the benefits of action addressing these pressures. Wise use of wetlands, including the conservation and restoration of hydrological functions, is essential in maintaining an infrastructure that can help meet a wide range of policy objectives. In many cases, natural ecosystems can provide ecosystem services at a lower price than hard engineered approaches. For example, the benefits of mangroves in Southern Thailand were estimated at about US$10,821/ha for coastal protection against storms, US$987/ha for fish nurseries and US$584/ha, in net present value terms for collected wood and non-timber forest products (see Figure 2.3 and Barbier, 2007, where all values are in net present value)9. According to this estimate, most of the economic benefits associated to mangrove conservation were due to the role of the mangrove wetlands as a natural infrastructure against storm. In contrast, the benefits of commercial shrimp farming were estimated at US$ 9,632/ha with government subsidies contributing the equivalent of US$8,412/ha. READ MORE

OCEANA

Mangrove mulching hindered
NEW ZEALAND - The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been ordered to tighten up its rules concerning mangrove management following a legal challenge from a Tauranga environmentalist. Basil Graeme appealed to the Environment Court following concerns waterfront property owners are obtaining resource consent to remove mangroves because they don’t like looking at them – consequently creating problems for the future. His appeal against the mangrove provisions of the regional council’s proposed Regional Policy Statement was upheld in part last month. Environment Court judge Jeff Smith has now ordered the BOPRC to immediately make changes to the mangrove management provisions of the RPS so obtaining consents for mangrove removal becomes more difficult. “Use of words such as ‘Manage mangroves to avoid the adverse effects of mangrove proliferation’ appears to involve an assumption that proliferation has adverse effects,” he says. In context that is unlikely to be the council’s intention, but Judge Smith required ambivalence in the policy to be clarified. READ MORE

LAST WORD

Please allow me to describe at least three crises faced by the nations in the world, including the 21 APEC member countries.

First, the economic crisis that ultimately leads to slowdown in the economic growth in some regions. This also encourages the shift in investment, including investment in fisheries, from the industrialized countries to developing countries and less-developed countries (LDCs). Based on the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)’s data, the foreign direct investment on fishery sector in Indonesia keeps increasing, from US$ 18 million in 2010 to US$ 29 million in 2012.

Second, the food and fishery trade crisis. It is characterized by import surge of fish commodities in the domestic market, crushed fish prices in traditional market, and ultimately, damage to local fisheries.

Third, the climate crisis. Since 2010, FAO has confirmed that climate change had multiple effects on the productivity of rural communities and areas that experienced high levels of food insecurity. To the small-scale fishers and coastal villages in Indonesia, climate change does not only cause a decline in fish productivity in a number of areas, but it also has a major impact on the security and safety of small-scale fishers and their families.

This is where we need to continue pushing the commitment of APEC member countries to urgently cut carbon emissions they emit to the atmosphere. Because, at least 4 of APEC member countries, respectively: the United States, China, Russia, and Japan have become the world's largest carbon emitters.

On the three crises mentioned above, I want to put the urgency of protecting small-scale fishers with human rights approach. Because, in reality the contribution of small-scale fisheries to alleviating hunger and poverty, providing jobs, and ensuring the sustainability of environment, both in quality and quantity, is very high. Though, around 60 percent of total world production of capture fishery is produced by APEC member countries.

Taking the example from Indonesia, approximately 91.8 percent of the total numbers of fishers in 2009 were categorized as small-scale fishers. Moreover, 92 percent of the fish captured by small-scale fishers is to meet the domestic needs. Therefore, without ensuring the welfare of small-scale fishers, it is impossible for Indonesia to be self-sufficient in food and to eradicate hunger and poverty.

In my opinion, we are currently in the right momentum to establish policies to protect small-scale fishers. READ ENTIRE PRESENTATION

M. Riza Damanik
Executive Director of Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ);
Board of Trustee of Indonesian Traditional Fishers Union (KNTI);
National Board of KIARA;
can be contacted by email riza.damanik@gmail.com

~ WE WELOCME YOUR LETTERS - If you’d like to have the last word on this or any other mangrove related topic, please send us your submission for upcoming newsletters. We’ll choose one per issue to have “the last word”. While we can’t promise to publish everyone’s letter, we do encourage anyone to post comments on our Blog at www. mangroveactionproject.blogspot.com

Please cut and paste these news alerts/ action alerts on to your own lists and contacts. Help us spread the word and further generate letters of concern, as this can make a big difference in helping to halt a wrongdoing or encourage correct action.